OPT links wave units Posted On: 2009-11-02 Posted by
Press Release
OCEAN Power Technologies has successfuly completion of trials of its underwater substation pod product in Spain.
The pod, based on the company’s proprietary design, has been developed to facilitate the collection, networking and transforming of power and data generated by up to 10 of its PowerBuoys for transmission to a shore-based electricity grid by one subsea power cable.
It has been built as an open platform, and can provide ″plug and play″ connectivity for any offshore energy device linked to it.
Underwater trials of the pod included pressure testing, running electric power to and from the system, and verification of data communication capabilities.
The completion of this milestone is part of an engineering, procurement and construction contract with Iberdrola Marinas de Cantabria
The company believes the pod is a unique product in the offshore market and creates a potentially new revenue stream for the company from sales to third parties engaged in marine power development and other offshore activities.
The company’s main revenue comes from the sale of PowerBuoys designed for utility-scale power generation projects and autonomous applications such as offshore homeland security.
The company reports the majority of offshore energy systems generate electricity at low voltage and need to step-up to medium or high voltage for efficient transmission to shore.
Additionally, offshore power projects typically have a number of devices (wind turbines, wave energy converters, tidal devices) that need to be networked offshore so that a single subsea cable can export the power and data to the shore.
OPT has fully analyzed these requirements and developed its pod to meet these performance demands.
In order to minimize the cost and complexity of marine operations, innovative connections and disconnections have also been designed to be undertaken at the sea surface using standard vessels.
″This project has been a true engineering challenge of converting an idea on a ‘whiteboard’ into reality and demonstrates how the company’s technical base can be used to create valuable intellectual property,″ Stuart Bower, engineering and projects director of Ocean Power Technologies Limited said.
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